A Winter Walk

snow falling soft, light, slow the lightest of breezes brushes the flakes against my cheeks

I am walking to the woods my steps leave deep prints in an unmarked plain

the woods are ahead white, muted soft, welcoming

silence, not a bird the woods are silent not a sound except,

yes I hear children screams of joy sliding down the sledding hill what joy, what joy

I watch as small clumps of snow fall from small branches thumping in the quiet wood

A chickadee suddenly sings, Chick-chick-a-dee in the silence it sounds like a bell

a fellow walker passes in silence we nod and keep walking unwilling to disturb the silence of the snowy woods

ah the quiet of a winter wood